Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Delegates to this week's UN High Level Political Forum on sustainable development will be considering the subject of resilience. Clare Shakya highlights some of the insights from CBA12 in Malawi that are relevant

As we face up to the challenges of the coming year, how does the global landscape for sustainable development look? IIED director Andrew Norton offers his thoughts on the key debates and changes we may see during 2018, and what they might mean for IIED's work

There is a risk that policymakers working on the Sustainable Development Goals see the 17 goals as 17 separate issues and fail to integrate efforts to achieve them. Rosalind Goodrich reports on a forum that looked at how natural capital accounting can encourage an integrated approach to achieving the SDGs and provide useful information for policy decisions

Evaluation processes will play a key role in national and global review systems for the Sustainable Development Goals.IIED and EVALSDGs are publishing a series of briefings about evaluation designed to help promote effective conduct and use of evaluation in SDGs implementation, follow-up and review.

In sub-Saharan Africa, achieving the Sustainable Development Goal of 'zero hunger' (SDG2), while reducing inequalities (SDG10) and conserving ecosystems (SDG15), is a big challenge. A new IIED-led research project aims to develop knowledge, relationships and research capacities to address this task

How can we embed the Sustainable Development Goals into development processes to reach the tipping point that we desperately need for dealing with the big challenges of our time? This blog by Stefano D'Errico follows up a joint UNICEF/EVALSDGs webinar in New York

With the meeting of the UN High-level Political Forum on sustainable development under way, Paul Steele discusses how natural capital can help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and lift the poorest out of poverty

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development provides an opportunity for countries to transform their development pathways. This level of change is uncharted territory for many countries, and creates new challenges

IIED values monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) as an important tool for research and influence to foster sustainable development. We work with NGOs, communities, and local and national authorities to enhance their institutional MEL capacities

Seasonal fishing bans are helping to recover stocks of Bangladesh's national fish, the hilsa. Bigger fish are fetching better prices and – from traders to retailers − many people along the value chain are benefiting. But a new IIED study shows how one group is slipping through the net: the fishermen and women

It took three years of international negotiations to agree the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the agenda for 2030. The scope and ambition of the SDGs resonate with IIED's work for a fairer and greener world

For Tanzania to meet its energy needs - and in a way that is sustainable - huge levels of finance are required to boost its decentralised energy sector. But the latest research shows current funding flows are way off target.

One year on from the Sustainable Development Goals coming into effect, IIED asks whether the international consensus underpinning the goals is strong enough to drive the shift from vision to creating real political change

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are in place, but are policy makers ready and willing to bite? Dave Steinbach explains why now is the time to move from intent to action – and outlines a new approach on how to deliver SDG 14.

Following the landmark global agreements on sustainable development sealed in 2015, including the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement on climate change, the end of 2016 prompted the question: can the world sustain this hard-fought momentum?

Countries with a strong sustainable development planning framework are finding that the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) work best as a political motivator for domestic action, rather than as a literal set of targets. Tighe Geoghegan explains the political case for SDGs from a Jamaican perspective

Although India has taken some important steps to implement the Sustainable Development Goals, there is still not enough participation in developing plans and not enough information has reached citizens

The ambition of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals and their 169 targets, according to the introductory text, is to 'leave no one behind'. But what does it mean in practice? This blog aims to explain this by focusing on the small-scale fishery sector in a developing country – specifically using the case of a fishing community in the Lower Meghna Basin in Bangladesh

Ahead of next week's dialogue event on the challenges and opportunities posed to Least Developed Countries by the Sustainable Development Goals, Gordon McGranahan examines how cities and urbanisation can contribute to attaining development goals.

Farah Kabir discusses how the Least Developed Countries have been driving their own sustainable development, and outlines what's needed for these vulnerable countries to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals

On Thursday, May 5, 2016 IIED is hosting a discussion meeting that will bring together four leading experts on urbanisation and development to look at at the prospects for Habitat III, the global summit on housing and sustainable urban development. The event will also see the launch of the April issue of Environment & Urbanization

In September 2015, the global community agreed the Sustainable Development Goals, setting out new development priorities for all countries, post-2015. The 17 new goals have been designed to integrate global ambitions on tackling poverty, reducing inequality, combating climate change, and protecting ecosystems including oceans, forests and biodiversity. It is an ambitious and universal agenda.

Could innovative local organisations working with forests, together with the Paris climate agreement, the Sustainable Development Goals and global financial crisis help deliver us into a post-capitalist era

With the support of country partners, IIED is conducting research to better understand existing and future competition and trade-offs between food production and natural forests, and the implications for land use policies in sub-Saharan Africa

Smallholder and community carbon projects have shown they can deliver local benefits and promote climate resilience. Now the Plan Vivo Standard and its partners, representing the oldest ethical carbon standard, have pledged their commitment to the delivery of the Sustainable Development Goals

The Sustainable Development Goals have been agreed, but for mountain communities around the world this action can't come quickly enough. Climate change is already here, threatening their food security, nutrition and livelihoods

The Sustainable Development Goals, to be agreed in New York later this month, are a key step on the road to a climate agreement in Paris in December, but must set the agenda for resilient low carbon development beyond Paris to 2030

If the world delivers on the Sustainable Development Goals, will IIED be out of a job? The SDGs may have a lot to say about what needs to be achieved but not about how, by whom and with what funding and support. There is hardly any mention of local government and local civil society. But you cannot meet the commitments listed above or indeed most of the other goals and targets in urban areas without their support.

In the first of a series of video interviews with IIED experts working on issues relating to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Strategy and Learning Group director Tom Bigg highlights the importance of their universality

Since its creation in 2013, the Least Developed Countries Independent Expert Group (IEG) has provided an independent voice for sustainable development of LDCs, contributing ideas, expertise and challenges to international debates

The Least Developed Countries Independent Expert Group is an informal group of individuals with a deep commitment to sustainable development and an understanding of the challenges to achieving it in the world's poorest countries

The 20th Poverty Environment Partnership (PEP) meeting focused on the opportunities for an integrated approach to development as embraced by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), but recognised that key challenges still remain to make implementation a reality

As the UNDP-UNEP Poverty Environment Initiative celebrates its 10th anniversary in Edinburgh, guest blogger Michael Stanley-Jones explains how its integrated approach is key for the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals

Ahead of the UN Forum on Forests meeting in New York, IIED’s Jonathan Reeves argues that achieving the Sustainable Development Goals – particularly for forests – depends upon integration and compromise and asks whether the political will exists to lay aside egos and break down institutional barriers

Explicit inclusion of secure land rights for local communities and indigenous peoples is key to "leaving no one behind" in global Sustainable Development Goals, writes Jenny Springer of Rights and Resources Initiative

The SDGs promise transformational change – but how is this delivered? A new study from RIMISP, a partner of the Independent Research Forum (IRF), looks at how major change came about in Chile's energy sector

Negotiations underway this week will focus on the declaration text for the Sustainable Development Goals. Jonathan Reeves suggests this is an ideal opportunity to raise global ambition – but says the signs are not good

After climate negotiations drew to a close in Lima, Jonathan Reeves reflects on the UN Secretary General's synthesis report on the post-2015 agenda and asks whether the "road to dignity" will take us to the right destination.

In its latest report, the UK parliament's Environmental Audit Committee has warned that the government risks undermining new global development goals, following evidence that the UK has been seeking to limit their scope and ambition

The Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) is launching an unprecedented appeal in response to the Ebola crisis, but what lessons must we learn if we are to effectively and equitably tackle future shocks of this scale?

It's been a busy week for IIED senior fellow Saleemul Huq, with plenty of action unfolding on the climate change front in New York. Here he provides an inside look into what transpired, and some reflections on how the recent events may impact upcoming climate negotiations

How can Least Developed Countries (LDCs) progress so they are no longer held back by extreme poverty? A conference next week in Cotonou, Benin, will address this issue, bringing together ministers and experts from LDCs, along with UN representatives and development experts.

Around a billion people live in informal urban settlements that lack essential services and security, so the concerns of these people should be high on the agenda when agreeing a new set of sustainable development goals

In late February, discussions over the post-2015 development agenda reached a milestone. The co-Chairs of the Open Working Group (OWG), the body tasked with preparing a Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) proposal for consideration by the UN General Assembly in September 2014, issued a "Focus Areas Document".

From January 29-31, Wilton Park hosted a conference enabling frank and open dialogue between those in the political process of setting 'sustainable development goals' and those in least developed countries (LDCs) who will need to implement the goals.

New 'sustainable development goals' for all nations to adopt in 2015 could deepen problems in the least developed countries (LDCs) if they fail to take account of these nations' priorities and the international nature of challenges they face.

As shoppers in New York surged through streets and avenues bedecked with festive offerings, delegates from around the world were summoning up the collective will to make something of the crucial opportunity presented by the Earth Summit in Rio